1a. Military
1b. The military in this perspective influenced the establishment of the authoritarian regime through its quick and efficient motions of achieving its goals to execute the coup. It was able to secure the control over “Concepcion, the country’s third largest city,” through its unified fashion and the abundance of support from the presidential palace and working-class communities. The Navy also had a large influence as it occupied the 2nd most important city very quickly, taking only 270 people prisoner. It was able to quickly take the cities and cause normalcy to return to the citizens.
1c. The attacks from the military impacted the students (academics) in some “isolated skirmishes” but did not impact the working class as many of the places worked normally due to the military’s control.
2a. Political
2b. The political junta influenced the establishment of the authoritarian regime through the formation of the commanders in chief of each of the three branches of the armed forces and the director of the Carabineros, causing the Congress to disband. They also used an anti-Marxist component to order the dissolution of the Popular Unity parties, promoting the cooperation between professionals and technocrats of the National Party and the Christian Democratic Party.
2c. The political advances were used against the higher class, while many leaders were brought down, and new rulers were substituted into these governments. These laws include the “Decree Law no. 25 that suspended the mayors and city councilors of municipalities of the country.” Decree Law no. 6. of September II. 1973. made "temporary" all state-administered institution personnel. except for judicial employees and those in the national comptrol-
ler's office. This decision made it possible to use political motives to fire staff belonging to left-wing parties.
3a. Military
3b. General Leigh was a scapegoat through Pinochet as his leadership of the airship was removed and his authority and power had been consolidated. This also showed Pinochet’s association in the military coup.
3c. Groups including politicians were influenced in Marxism were affected as the first decision was to bomb La Moneda Palace and General Gustavo Leigh’s speech declaring that war on Marxism. The second decision was to create the National Intelligence Directorate, creating new jobs for high class politicians. The third decision was to speed up trials, which led to the assassination of seventy-two people in what
has become known as the "caravan of death."
4a. Military
4b. Arellano’s contribution was of the military aspect as he used his “caravan of death” to slaughter many victims who were accused of minor misdemeanors. This violence rooted from one of the first five army officers who planned the coup.
4c. Grassroot political leaders, workers, academics, and men from political parties were all slaughtered, many whom who were accused based on minor misdemeanors. DINA’s contribution to Pinochet’s regime was to internally suppress rebels and enforcing unfair trials.
5a. Political
5b. The judiciary branch of the military was restricted, their purpose to resolve emergency situations and then cease effect. Many trials were seriously flawed in both form and substance, and had failed to prove the crimes “attributed to the accused,” leaving doubts in the occurrence of the crimes.
5c. Injustices were placed on many of the workers of the high class and the academics as they were victims of unfair trials.
6a. Political / Economical
6b. The newspaper’s role was extremely important as it was an information source providing valuable information on political developments, despite the limitations imposed by the censorship of the press. Its influence on the public prevented it from being shut down.
6c. This influenced the businesspeople who bought the company, turning the reliable information source into a radio station that continued to function, despite the government’s constant censorship. It also influenced the people as it was a reliable source of information to the public, preventing the newspaper from being completely shut down.

Reply

Dcheu02

7/14/2017 11:45:55 pm

The first strategy Pinochet used to consolidate his power was the enforcement of an “Atmosphere of War.” A political tactic, the military and government justified their repression of left-wing groups and dissidents as anti-government guerillas at war with the state, despite such an armed force essentially not existing, unlike in Argentina. Left-wing parties were outlawed and citizens were encouraged to report on potential dissidents, such as priests and neighbors. This justified the regime’s authoritarianism and hardline stance against the opposition as enemies of the state. (Huneeus, 17) A State of Siege was declared and extended multiple times to strengthen the junta’s power. (25)

Another tactic was an event known as the Caravan of Death, a social terror that heightened the Atmosphere of War by torturing and “disappearing” dissidents, heightening the atmosphere of war and encouraging citizens to turn on their neighbors. This caravan attacked local politicians, clergy, and ordinary people. Political prisoners that were given comparatively light punishment, such as jail time, by regional courts were tried again in military courts, tortured, and killed. (19)

Another policy to build authoritarianism in Chile was Limited Synchronization, a political move to reorganize the public sector all the way down to mayors and secondary school teachers, replacing these important social positions with those loyal to the regime and restructure Chilean society to support the regime. In the Catholic University in Santiago, “152 academics had been fired and another 165 saw their work hours cut to the point where they practically had no reason to stay,” (31) a cleanse of academia to give pro-government factions control of the institution.

However, many social and political institutions entered Voluntary Synchronization, where they voluntarily supported the regime out of personal gain or preservation, such as the Supreme Court voluntarily relinquishing its supervision over military courts. (26) It allowed people to express their loyalty and gave the government the freedom it needed to consolidate control without accountability. Left-wing newspapers were shut down directly or indirectly through funding cuts or disbanding of their patron left-wing parties. Papers favorable to the regime echoed its arguments and received support, such as "El Mercurio" who went after the Catholic Church and other objectors to the regime. (29)

The National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) was formed to infiltrate many institutions, political and social, to root out dissidents, Marxists, and their sympathizers, including public and private sectors and the Catholic Church. (22) The agency also targeted musicians and Chilean expats, including the assassination of Orlando Letelier and his assistant Ronni Moffit in Washington, DC in 1976 (23), to stamp out all possible opposition to the regime.

Reply

Russ1

7/28/2017 07:12:30 am

There were several methods used by the Pinochet regime to effectively implement an authoritarian rule within Chile. Of these, a notable few addressed social, political, and/or economic issues in Chile to further inculcate the new regime into Chilean government while at the same time ending Chile’s affiliation with the previous ruling party: The Christian Democrat Party (PDC).
The coup that ended Salvador Allende’s control over Chile was instrumental in starting the Pinochet regime; without this military takeover, the regime would not have started as quickly as it did and may have crumbled soon after. Therefore, the first method introduced by the Pinochet regime was simply to overtake control politically, economically, and socially as quickly as possible. Many historians believe that the primary reason for the Pinochet regime’s initial success was not only its successful coup, but also its ability to assume power with such speed. The term revolutionary socialism refers to the ideological need for a revolution or a strain of reforms that embody revolution for a new structurally oriented society to arise. The use of this ideology aligns with the coup that occurred on September 11, 1973 in order to oust the democratically-elected socialist government of Salvador Allende and install the authoritarian regime led by Augusto Pinochet.
Several lawful decrees were implemented quickly after the coup which furthered the political, social, and economic desires of the regime. These decrees functioned in tandem with the regime’s desire to dissolve parties negative towards Chile’s authoritarian advancement. For example, Decree Law no. 604 of October 10, 1973 effectively protected the nation from negative ideological pressure by banning the, “entry into the country of Chileans or foreigners who ‘propagated or encourage doctrines that tend to destroy or alter through violence the country’s social order or system of government.” (Huneeus 45) Decree Law no. 98 of October 26, 1973 was towards the ultimate goal of party realignment within the Chilean populace and as a result, “called for the reorganization of the entire public sector.” (Huneeus 46) Political and social reforms such as these fall under the larger method of rapid reformation of the nation towards the ultimate goal of accepted authoritarian installation.
Within the first lines of the chapter, Hunneus remarks that the decisions of people in power ultimately shape the outcome of the regime. In the case of the Pinochet regime, 3 decisions are made shortly after the coup that helped establish, “the coercive nature of the regime.” (Hunneus 46) First, the decision by General Gustavo Leigh, the head of the air force at the time, to “bomb La Moneda Palace and his speech declaring that war on Marxism was one of the new regime’s priorities.” General Leigh was attempting to fight for the new government while at the same time putting himself into a greater position of power. It was in this way that General Leigh’s ambition was too great for power and was removed from head of the air force by General Pinochet in 1978. (Hunneus 46) Secondly, the decision by General Pinochet to create a, “National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) as a special security service” (Hunneus 46) for the Marxist fight and to appoint Manuel Contreras as its head. The DINA was very important for the establishment of the regime because it allowed for government monitoring of issues both inside and outside Chile. Initially, the DINA successfully furthered General Pinochet’s trustworthiness because of the institution’s success in dismantling “the Communist Party, severely weakened the clandestine organization of the Socialist Party, and destroyed the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).”(Hunneus 51) The DINA’s role in the assassinations of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffit, his US aide, on September 21, 1976 in Washington, DC caused for massive criticisms regarding the DINA’s blatant acts of aggression towards the US. Finally, the third decision was made by General Sergio Arellano Stark who was under orders by general Pinochet to speed up military tribunal trials in the northern region of the country. This caused the assassination of seventy-two people in what is known as the caravan of death. When viewing these decisions as a collective method it is sufficed to say that they ultimately helped further the already existing “climate of fear” (Hunneus 46) within the Chilean population and are therefore socially oriented.
The Pinochet regime also applied the ideal of limited synchronization within Universities in which professors who were aligned with Marxism or any other ideology opposite of the regime had their wages cut to force their retirement. Ultimately these methods show how diversified the regime’s methodology was and how th

Reply

Pagliacci

8/1/2017 08:19:14 am

The political regime which emerged after the September 11th, 1973 coup against President Allende was founded and defined by its excessive use of coercion and violence. The economic aspects associated with the establishment of Pinochet’s regime appeared to have functioned primarily as a catalyst and justification for the political changes brought upon by the regime. It’s not to say that Pinochet’s authoritarian regime was established without the use of any economical methods, however, the vast majority of these methods or strategies were focused almost entirely on political and social manipulation, such as the legitimization of coercive methods through the establishment of government organizations like the DINA or through the complete disestablishing of political parties.
As the author states “the new government was concerned with establishing a legal system that would legitimize the coercive measures, such as exile, justifying them as mere administrative decisions.” Organizations such as DINA were utilized "to gather all information at the national level from different fields of action to produce the intelligence necessary to formulate policy, planning and the adoption of measures meant to safeguard national security and the country's development." The structure of this organization allowed political leaders such as Pinochet to “request that public agencies at any level provide the reports or background that it required “, leading to direct political interference through acts such as the Caravan of Death. Pinochet’s regime also achieved this through a variety non-military related political tactics, most notably and explicitly through the manipulation of the judiciary branch of government. Through a mixture of “voluntary and forced synchronization”, this regime controlled the people allowed to express their ideologies in the society. Although the judiciary always claimed to support the new governing Junta from the very start (allowing for example various violations of human rights and ignoring the reports of abuse of power), Pinochet’s regime also “resorted to states of exception to neutralize the judiciary, which by themselves were an abuse, since their purpose is to resolve emergency situations and then cease effect.” The control over universities and various media outlets was also utilized by the emerging regime as a method of dictating which ideas where seen as appropriate among the culture, and which ideas were seen as threats. This included the media’s portrayal of political groups such as the MIR and FPMR as bigger threats than they were in reality, further justifying violent methods carried out by the DINA such as the previously mentioned Caravan of death. By defining what the biggest threats to the Chilean state were, Pinochet’s regime continued to feed into the social ideology to prefer a strong and strict dictatorship over a so called “dictablanda,” which was seen as weak an inefficient way to protect the country’s interests. These interests, as previously mentioned in the Regime’s control of the media and will be seen more explicitly in the coming chapters, were set and defined by the regime’s explicitly militaristic goals and ideologies. Pinochet’s regime on Chile justified the use of excessive violence through the manipulation of an integrated political and social fear of the Communist left and Marxists ideology.
By over-emphasizing the possible threat from the left political spectrum and by taking advantage of social and economic fears, this new regime justified the suppression of different political ideologies, silencing and arresting various members of middle class workers such as school professors or even students. These groups of workers were silenced as well as other groups such as Catholic preachers and students, who proclaimed a preference for socialist ideologies. Although no specific gender groups were affected in any obvious manner, the working class along with religious students definitely felt a government bias against them.

Reply

Dolores Abernathy

8/9/2017 07:40:37 pm

1 (a) Political
(b) Upon having an early success with seizing the cities of Concepción and Valparaiso, a system of order was put in place for the newly established regime where General Pinochet was appointed president of the junta. Congress was declared disbanded by the junta, so as to give full power to themselves. As another declaration of the new power to be established by the junta, “parties belonging to the Popular Unity were now outside the law, treated as ‘illegal associations’” (44). Given this act, an anti-Marxist attitude was taken on by the new regime and put into place by the act of dissolving the Popular Unity parties. Following the act, organizations such as the National Party disbanded itself.
(c) This particular method of beginning to establish Pinochet’s regime impacted mostly the classes that would benefit from having a Socialist government in place. By declaring parties such as those illegal, the method by which Pinochet initially began to establish his regime would ultimately benefit the citizens who had more money and take away the opportunity for the lower classes to benefit from the government.

2 (a) Political/Social
(b) In order to establish a “legal system that would legitimize the coercive measures” the government planned to take in order to maintain the unified support for the junta, many Decree Laws were put into place to justify decisions that would otherwise be ruled against (45). Decree Law no. 604 dealt with banning either Chileans or foreigners who suggested a challenge to the social order or government from entering the Chile. Another, Decree Law no. 25, allowed the governing junta to appoint the people who would serve as mayor after suspending the old ones.
(c) The decree laws put in place benefitted only those who were in favor of the governing junta led by Pinochet. These laws most directly affected the working class because the laws, specifically Decree Law no. 98 dealt with allowing the junta to interfere with payroll and transfer of staff in the public sector of employment. An earlier decree allowed for the government to “use political motives to fire staff belonging to left-wing parties” (46).

3 (a) Political
(b) DINA was an organization put in place under Pinochet’s regime which became one of the key players in the fight against Marxism. The organization soon became “a symbol of the military regime’s repressive character” in that it went to extremes in order to effectively oppose Marxism; the official description of DINA involved gathering “all information at the national level from different fields of action to produce the intelligence necessary to formulate policy planning and the adoption of measures meant to safeguard national security and the country’s development” (50). The war against Marxism conducted by DINA to establish further the legitimacy of the military regime in Chile was not only at a national level but also taken abroad – operations were at one point extended into Europe seeking support of Italian groups.
(c) The main impact of this sector of establishing Pinochet’s regime fell back on the actual military. DINA initially contributed to Pinochet’s regime by gaining power and putting opposition toward Marxist threats, but eventually the military was placed in a bad light when the man in charge, Contreras, was found to be involved in the killing of a man in the United States – this led to international condemnation of DINA and thus the military regime as a whole.

4 (a) Social
(b) Limitations were placed on the judiciary system, the media, and even universities upon Pinochet’s regime forming. The judiciary system was initially seen by the military as a power to be taken down because of the authority it held over Chile, but a siege placed over the national on behalf of the regime worked to neutralize the power of the court – many people argued that the regime advocated for human rights in this manner. As for the media, the regime took over most of the main television stations, radio stations, and newspapers – the organizations which had been dissolved earlier (National Party) ceded their media outreach as well. Universities were limited to their outreach given that the people allowed to have authority were members of the military regime.
(c) These limitations impacted all citizens of Chile in that only information given permission by the regime was to get out and be taught to the people. Younger children, specifically, would be brought up being fed only the information permitted in an isolated setting.

Reply

The Backpfeifengesicht

8/14/2017 11:44:20 am

In General Pinochet’s establishment of an authoritarian regime, his approach centered around the repression of political dissidents, particularly those who aligned with leftist viewpoints, who disagreed with his policies and power, and especially those who had belonged to the Popular Unity Party. Thus, his principal method was of political interest, pushing towards a state that accepted his ideology and his authority. In this respect, Pinochet was willing to target all persons who associated with leftist viewpoints at all, encompassing those he viewed as subversives as well as the mothers, wives, and children of those detractors.

Advancing his authoritarian rule, he further implemented political tactics including the establishment of apparent democratic institutions and constructed laws to secure the legal system he pursued and established. This system criminalized even slight acts of accused terror and greatly supplied the military with total control over judiciary acts. Furthermore, the unification Pinochet founded in the military was reinforced by the violence the armed forces used. Although little violence was used to take control of major cities during the coup, violence was harbored and embraced of as a legitimate approach to political repression. The violence was often tolerated by society too, where the military was led to intervene in what they presented as means to prevent the nation’s fall to communism. Essentially, Pinochet’s regime acknowledged that military intervention and violence was necessary until any guerrilla forces, subversive parties including the Christian Democratic Party, and counter-groups such as the MIR and FPMR had been dealt with and removed. That is, even if removal led to the assassination or “disappearing” of individuals.

Another component of Pinochet’s regime’s fulfillment was the disarray of Chile’s society. This approach was largely of social tactic, pushing towards an instilment of fear and terror in the country’s population. After the coup, Pinochet order his regime to hunt down leaders of the PU in what is now considered the “Caravan of Death.” In accordance with Pinochet’s overarching political methods to eliminate all opposing perspectives, the killing of PU supporters and leaders accomplished silence of subversives through fear of death, deterring and eliminating military officials against Pinochet’s regime, and established a state of terror that was institutionalized under his power.

Formation of the National Intelligence Directorate supplied Pinochet with another political method of conquering any opposition. The DINA was used to formulate policies and preserve the security and progress of Pinochet’s regime. By establishing detention centers, members of President Allende’s Marxist government and followers of leftist movements were arrested and tortured to push towards Pinochet’s goal of a society completely aligned with his views. In this regard, the outlawing of the formation of political parties was in accordance with the removal of any of Pinochet’s resistance.

Furthermore, the military’s ability to undertake control of local governments, universities, radio broadcasts, and other media eliminated the economic control any Marxist or leftist leaders had in regulating cities and institutions, as well as silenced the outlets groups such as the PU had in spreading their control. Ultimately, the military and its ability to maintain a consistent uniformity across Chile provided Pinochet with a means to establish and prolong his authoritarian regime.

Reply

Anya Newell

8/14/2017 03:13:04 pm

General Pinochet had to use many different tactics to establish his authoritarian regime after taking over Chile from General Allende in the coup on September 11, 1973. The methods that Pinochet used include: the way power was seized, the implementation of the new government, the willingness to use violence, the process of making terror personal, and the way the media and judiciary fit into the making of limited synchronization in the government.
The first method analyzed was the rapid seizure of power which was a political method. The armed forces executed the seizure efficiently and rapidly, achieving their objective in just a few hours in a unified fashion with no internal dissidence. The unity, strength and speed of the forces led the majority of the country to submit to the new leadership. Pinochet through his armed forces was able to show that the new regime was a force to be feared and respected. The seizure had no direct impact on a specific group because it affected the entire nation.
The second method analyzed was the implementation of a new government which was both a political and economic method. Pinochet set about to establish a limited synchronization in the government that allowed him to take total control over the politics and economics of the country. The universities were a part of the plan due to their political importance. This method showed the complete control Pinochet held and allowed him to assert his dominance over the country by way of the government. This most specifically affected those who dealt with politics due to the changing policies, even though it affected the entire country as well.
The third method was the willingness to use violence which is political because of its use of the military. The military helped Pinochet establish his regime as highly coercive and aided in generating a climate of fear among the population because those who were Marxist or associated in the slightest were targeted. This established his regime because it broke Pinochet's previous image of not having any part of the conspiracy and instead showed him as the leader of the new regime. This affected those who were Marxist because the new policies were set against Marxism and wanted to flush it out of the country so if anyone was Marxist they had to be cautious.
The fourth method was making terror personal which was purely social since it's against the people. Pinochet used the DINA organization to consolidate his personal power. DINA was the main power behind the battle against Marxism. They acted in Chile and abroad striking terror into anyone who could be considered oppositional. DINA became a symbol of the regime's repressive power and Pinochet's power. It affected both oppositional groups and supportive groups because DINA monitored everyone, including the regime's top government officials by collecting information from private lines and professional performance.
The last method was using the media and judiciary to aid in the limited synchronization in the government which was a social and political method. The regime created ways to try and coerce the judiciary into supporting the regime but the voluntary and slightly forced synchronizations, without seeking to do so, created conditions favoring the use of coercions by the security services and gave Pinochet verification as leader. The media, on the other hand, was quickly seized by the new authorities and the staff were flushed out so they did not oppose the new regime. It allowed the regime to release news of themselves to the public and the media to talk about the regime and its oppositions. This method mainly affected those who were left-wing affiliates because they were the people who lost their jobs and were considered as opposition.
These main methods of Pinochet to establish his regime focused on and analyzed the military seizure of power in Chile, the radicalization of the regime's coercive style and its usurpation of the country's major institutions, including the judiciary and the media.

Reply

mlittle99

8/16/2017 08:02:00 pm

1. Pinochet employed various methods in order to establish his authoritarian regime, all of which together encompassed social, political, and economic sectors. One of the most prominent methods used was coercion and violence through the military, which was both a political and economic move that stemmed from earlier crises. Another political move by the Pinochet regime was limited synchronization, such as creating a new governing junta, which “invested itself with full constituent, legislative, and executive powers,” as stated by Carlos Huneeus in his book The Pinochet Regime (44). Doubling as a social and political method, Pinochet’s special security service, the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), was a group of secretive detectives keeping citizens in check by monitoring their words and actions, and punishing those who contradicted Pinochet. It was initially “conceived of as an advisory body to the junta; however, it soon became instrumental to consolidating General Pinochet’s personal power.” (50) On the social side, Pinochet made use of both the media and universities in an effort to establish his authoritarian regime.
2. The military method used has the prominent example of the Caravan of Death, which was a way to eradicate any opposition to the regime for the most part on the north of country early into the Pinochet dictatorship. Military officials would round up civilian suspected of being leftist or merely against any platform of Pinochet, and then torture and kill them. This “Caravan” would travel from city to city and get political prisoners from jail to be a part of the massacre. This highly violent method instilled a great deal of fear in the citizens of Chile, a looming threat that to anyone who decided to oppose the regime would face similar consequences. On a more political note, the limited synchronization implemented ensured that only trusted individuals who supported Pinochet were running the government. One of the first acts of the junta was to disband any parties in opposition, including Congress, yet to leave some organizations relatively stable in order to “promoted cooperation between professionals and technocrats of the National Party and those of the Christian Democratic Party.” (44) Additionally, the limitation made state funded employees temporary, which mean they could be fired if part of a left-wing party. Furthermore, the judiciary in fact volunteered their synchronization, since Supreme Court President Enrique Urrutia did not hide his support for the new regime,” paving the way for Pinochet to bypass all civil rights laws and regulations with his military acts of terror and his detective from DINA (54). In turn, the responsibility of the DINA was to computerize files to terrorize civilians through brutal questioning and torture any suspicious leftist and eventually possibly to his or her death. Pinochet was “appointing military members as university presidents” from this organization, in order to ensure that his detectives were in all public sectors, and not even students were free of condemnation (57). Furthermore, control of the social sector through the media and universities was done through extensive censorship so as to manipulate the perception not just of those residing in Chile, but also of the rest of world, especially in the cases of “missing people.”
3. The violence spurred by the military affected those in middle and working-class communities by removing all arms and weaponry that could possibly help in the opposition movement, and subsequently Pinochet continued to consolidate his power by stripping any voice or action on part of anyone opposed to his ruling. The women were largely affected by the alleged “disappeared people” seen on the media and concealed by universities and the press, and thus created their own indirect resistance movement by creating art works such as tapestries to depict their pain and sorrow that came out of the Pinochet authoritarian state. Additionally, the universities had an impact on social classes in Chile as it became increasingly more difficult to attain an education since Pinochet made a move to install his military officials as residing universities presidents, which would ensure that, according to Pinochet rule, no one would act out of the orderly.

Reply

Mushroom Princess

8/16/2017 08:37:13 pm

Similar to the United States’ Red Scare during the Cold War, Chile under Allende’s minority government experienced increasingly anti communist sentiment. The military was considered by many to be the defender of capitalism in Chile, which gave rise to the general expectation that it would organize a coup against the socialist presidency. This political atmosphere was the catalyst for the military coup and General Pinochet’s rise to power, a position which he secured largely by establishing a climate of war on communism and instilling fear in the hearts of Chileans. This war on communism was emphasized in institutions across Chile in order to justify the severe violence and repression instituted by the regime. Because protecting capitalism was said to be at the center of the coup, appealing to favorable economic ideology was crucial in Pinochet securing his regime, however, the effort was necessarily supplemented by a series of sociopolitical efforts. Even before the coup, the media served as a tool for the military’s regime in that it instilled doubt into the minds of citizens surrounding Allende’s presidency. El Libro Blanco was instrumental in this sense, as it published claims that the voter list for the 1973 election had been tampered with, a story which severely damaged the credibility of democracy in a country still early in its democratic days. After the coup, the military government took control of many sectors of the media, closing down newspapers and magazines of opposing political views and installing military personnel in various news outlets. Military officers were also appointed to be the presidents of universities which tended to be more left wing. Not only did these measures displace working class citizens, it was a social advocation of the new military regime. The media and university’s contribution to public opinion was altered in support of Pinochet and the military government. Much of Pinochet’s methods for establishing his regime, however, were political. His main tactic was to repress any person, group, or force who expressed anti government sentiment. The so-called “caravan of death” was an example of this excess of violence in which an attempt to speed up the trials of various people accused of minor crimes against the state resulted in 72 unjust deaths across Chile. This massacre, however, was just one instance of the military government’s attempt to strike fear into the hearts of its supporters and opposition alike. El Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), an organization formed primarily to fight Marxism, was a political body who, in very general terms, was employed with protecting the effectiveness of the regime. This meant that DINA investigated those employed in government (though it was comprised almost entirely of military personnel, anyway), fought opposition abroad, and targeted groups considered left-wing, citing the Catholic Church’s advocacy for human rights as Marxist and therefore anti government. One of the main contributors to the regime’s success was the judiciary. One of the many questions surrounding the relatively passive response to the government and its violence deals with the Supreme Court’s compliance with the blatant and constant violations of human rights. The nominal military justice system was a case of voluntary assimilation into the military government and served as a major enabler to the violence occurring. The establishment of the regime depended upon the establishing and reestablishing of political and nonpolitical institutions alike, which frequently meant replacing positions with people in agreement with the political ideology of the military government. These methods spanned any organization which could have an impact on the success of the government and penetrated the lives of Chileans everywhere.

Reply

Blue

8/18/2017 10:04:15 am

One of the prominent methods used by Pinochet to establish his authoritarian regime was the use of violence, such as the coup and the actions toward the guerillas (Political/Economical). This method was caused by the political polarization between the rising socialists in government and the right-wing party capitalist. The controversy of President Salvador Allende’s government trying to institute socialistic polices would ultimately cause economic changes that would make the government intervene with the businesses. This led to a coup toward the government in an effort to destroy the voter list for altering the expression of the majority. With General Carlos Prats being forced to resign for being “pro-Allende” and not seeking a coup led to General Augusto Pinochet to lead a coup against Allende. Pinochet utilized violence in an effort to counter Plan Z which involved the supposed formation of guerillas, compromised of the foreigners and students, to challenge the coup. However, there was an exaggeration in the number of people in guerillas and Pinochet utilized Plan Z as a way to justify his utilization of force and take control of Chile. Another reason for the use of violence was to counter the Marxism movement other members wouldn’t allow a peaceful resolution for the reason that it might lead to a dictablanda (soft dictatorship) and so Marxists would be able to take advantage of the soft dictatorship as stated by Independent Democratic Union “what Marxism is waiting for in the shadows” (38). Violence only affected those that were against the military such as right winged party members. Another method of establishing the authoritarian regime was the junta that was formed by the military in order to dismantle any organizations that went against the regime (Political). They immediately disbanded congress and appointed General Pinochet as president. Along with disbanding congress the military also treated the parties that belonged to the Popular Unity as illegal associations that had their goods confiscated by the state. This control of government established Pinochet’s authoritarian control of Chile by eliminating any party that went against him. One of the biggest threats to Pinochet’s regime was the Marxists movement, and Pinochet had to “excise the Marxist Cancer” (Political/Social). Pinochet had three decisions that were directly focused on stopping Marxism in Chile, “first was the decision by General Gustavo Leigh, head of the air force, to bomb La Moneda Palace and his speech declaring that war on Marxism was one of the new regime's priorities. The second was the decision by Pinochet to create National Intelligence Directorate (Direccion de lnteligencia Nacional [DINA]) as a special security service to carry out the fight against Marxism, and to appoint then-colonel Manuel Contreras as its head. The third was the decision by army general Sergio Arellano Stark, under General Pinochet's orders, to speed up trials in military tribunals in the country's northern region, which led to the assassination of seventy-two people in what has become known as the "caravan of death."(46). These actions were strictly concerned with Marxists and other political figures that were not cooperative with Pinochet’s regime. The majority of Pinochet’s actions involved violence toward the previous government or parties that were involved with Marxism and thus ensured his authoritarian regime over Chile. Coercion was so effective with Pinochet due to the fact that there was practically no resistance by the people; in the contrary, the people’s encouragement of a strong dictatorship cleared the way towards Pinochet’s authoritarian government.

Reply

Andre 3000

8/18/2017 10:03:35 pm

The most notable method used by Pinochet in establishing his authoritarian regime was the torturing and murdering of any person who disagreed with him or had any opposing views from his rule. Though there was no specific target in either class or gender with this method, it was still a very powerful and effective method, placing it under the social category because while the main reason is to remove any opposition from his rule, it was also to strike fear into the hearts of the others that were under his rule, warning them not to make the same mistake, shaping it into more of a threat rather than a warning. The great coup that Pinochet threw against the man that granted his position as commander-in-chief marks the political aspect in his progress to his authoritarian rule. The former president, Salvador Allende, was an openly Marxist president, the first to be ever elected in South America. Allende was the leader of the Unidad Popular, a political party that involved the Socialist Party, Communist Party, Radical Party, Social Democrat Party, Movement of Unitary Action, and Independent Popular Action, all of which Pinochet had a plan to overthrow. The coup thrown by Pinochet was an obvious political movement, considering that all the parties that Allende stood for, Pinochet was against, and by overthrowing the president, Pinochet was able to rid Chile of all the negative people that Pinochet so opposed. While there was no specific targeting in class and gender in the coup, the working-class communities suffered significantly more than any of the others classes, since they were the only ones who showed the most resistance towards the military during the coup, along with a few people surrounding the presidential palace. By overthrowing President Allende, Pinochet destroyed the democratic state that Allende had tried to preserve, and turned Chile into a more dictatorship-like state, meanwhile, reasserting the free-market policies. Being a dictator, Pinochet did in fact improve Chile’s economy, by maintaining a low rate of inflation along with a reasonable economic growth rate. While Pinochet’s rule is viewed as a ruthless dictatorship, the end result was Chile being considered “Latin America’s most successful country”.

Reply

Dahlia Tenebrae

8/19/2017 03:40:21 pm

Pinochet is renowned for his use of excessive violence while ruling Chile, this could be seen from the beginning of the coup, in which violence was used by the military to ensure no one, particularly the Marxists, would be able to oppose them. The use of violence was defended by the right-wing sectors of the government and military who were convinced that the level of violence should be maintained if the coup wanted to stay in power. Jaime Guzmán, who opposed President Allende and was an active coup supporter, supported the violence instilled by the junta and coup, and believed that if the dictatorship was turned into a “dictablanda” it would be an “error of unforeseeable consequences”(38). The military’s continued use of violence was justified by both the military and civilians, who argued that the country was at war with guerrilla forces, even after the military took power in the country, and the military continued to use this as an excuse for its excessive use of violence until the late 1990’s. Pinochet’s creation of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), which was initially conceived as an advisory body to the junta but soon became known as “Pinochet’s Gestapo,” allowed for Pinochet to begin spying on people both in Chile and abroad, which caused terror among opposing groups and fear among the regime’s supporters to stay loyal. Much like the Gestapo of Nazi Germany or the Stasi of the East German Democratic Republic (DDR), the DINA ruthlessly eradicated opposition to the regime. This created tension and fear among the people of Chile, as DINA recruited many people, and there was no way of knowing who was a spy, and because the DINA was authorized to carry out searches and arrests without warrants, a long list of detained and disappeared persons was left in its wake. Pinochet’s coercion tactics worked extremely well in installing his regime, and his continued use of violence and terror kept the country under his rule, with little opposition from other groups.
Chile’s judiciary played an important role in Pinochet’s regime, as the country’s Supreme Court voiced its support for the junta, especially the Supreme Court president, Enrique Urrutia Manzano who lead a delegation that represented the junta against Perón when he assumed the presidency of Argentina in 1973. The courts would defend private property more often than judicial principles and human rights being violated by the new government. Urrutia spoke out several times against organizations accusing Chile of violating the human rights of the Chilean people, stating in 1974 during the first ceremony under the new regime that “human rights are not occasional...they are universally accepted rights, respected in our homeland.” (56) The approval and support of the Supreme Court for the junta made it easier for Pinochet to assume command of the country, and keep things within the country easier to control, since the courts would not acknowledge the extreme violation of human rights by the new regime.
The junta was swift in securing the media in every aspect they could by taking over tv channels and appointing military leaders as university presidents. The government also shut down all left-wing newspapers and confiscated their equipment to ensure they would not continue to operate. The government silenced many different newspapers and radio stations, shutting them down by force or through severe taxes that made it difficult to financially run a newspaper or radio station. Soon after the media takeover, the government created a public information body, DINACOS, whose sole purpose was censorship of the media. Articles on human rights issues were not allowed to be published, and articles on things such as political issues, the economy, and international affairs were considered a threat and unpatriotic to the country. Pinochet's total control of the media allowed for little to no opposition to him from the media in Chile, and much like the state-run television and radio industries of the DDR, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst (ADN), the Chilean population was fed a daily dose of closely monitored propaganda.

Reply

Eliza Bennet

8/20/2017 11:05:01 am

1). One of Pinochet’s initial methods in establishing his authoritarian regime was the synchronization of the governmental pillars for the new order. Such synchronization was political and was geared toward the elite as the governmental pillars were largely composed of the elite class. Pinochet’s governing junta was comprised by the commanders of the three branches of the armed forces and additionally also by the director of the Carabineros. The junta’s disbanding of congress alienated differing political groups, such as Popular Unity, alienated from the actual established government. Popular Unity was then ordered to dissolve through the implementation of anti- Marxist rhetoric. Political attitudes were further synchronized nationwide through the control of local governments. New majors were appointed so as to ensure political harmony. State run educational institutions were also synchronized through a decree, which empowered the government to fire left wing primary and secondary school teachers by declaring all state, administered personnel temporary. Therefore, the synchronization of political attitudes at governmental levels, ensured the centralization of authority necessary for an authoritarian regime.

2). Pinochet also solidified the presence and power of his regime by militarily ridding Chile of Marxism by targeting supposed Popular Unity armed groups. Through such militarization, the military was able to take control of the country. Pinochet’s regime was particularly characterized by a series of three military actions geared toward eradicating Marxism in Chile. The campaign against Marxism was defined by three main milestones: the bombing of La Moneda Palace combined with General Leigh’s speech declaring war on Marxism, Pinochet’s creation of DINA, an intelligence directorate secret service tasked with fighting Marxism, and General Sergio Arellano Stark’s decision to speed up trials leading to an increase in assassinations. The detainees in Santiago were held against the full force of the law; the implementation of military tribunals often forsook rights of due process. The militarism of the fight against Marxism was particularly emphasized through the Caravan of Death which expanded the climate of war outside of the capital.
Such a political method in solidifying the regime was the most multifaceted in target as the militarism affected a variety of social classes and genders.

3). The voluntary synchronization of the judiciary facilitated the establishment of Pinochet’s authoritarian regime. Supreme court grew to forsake the defense of human rights under the new regime. The Judiciary was effectively neutralized through the implementation of states of exception. A state of siege was extended through a series of decrees in 1973 and again several times during the 1980s. However, General Pinochet gained even more power under the decree in 1981 that declared a state of danger of disturbance to internal peace, which effectively combined elements of siege and emergency. Such states of exception were continuous and successfully granted more power to the political order than to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court members themselves however, specifically the president, remained ardent advocates for the state of human rights affairs in the country continuously defending the decrees and the military courts.

4). Pinochet likewise seized control of the media as a means of facilitating a better political synchronization of the entire country. The government took control of certain stations such as Channel 7, and other university channels. Government closures of newspapers of opposing views such as the left wing El Silo and Notices de Ultima Hora otherwise affected the press. The government exercised economic power through rightwing businessmen supporters who aided in closing other opposing media outlets such as the weekly Magazine Ercilla.. Such a method was therefore both political and economic in nature as the regime worked with wealthy businessmen in establishing economic intimidation with a political agenda.

5). The synchronization of Universities was conducted so as to neutralize what had previously encompassed hubs of political activity and often insurrection. The military was tasked with restructuring universities so as to effectively neutralize the universities politically. The Junta did so by appointing high ranking military officers as presidents of universities; thus, officers were empowered to fire professors and administrative staff in addition to disciplining students. In the case of Catholic University, leadership was restructured to the extent of even absolving several types of student and faculty leadership in eradicating academic and student representative positions on the board and instead replacing such leadership with advisory councils and committees directly associated with the Greminalista movement. The synchro

Reply

Folgers

8/20/2017 01:41:46 pm

The Pinochet Regime occurred between the military and the current government. The reason for the authoritarian regime did have various factors however, the main reason can be easily identified as political. General Augusto Pinochet and military led a coup against the government in order to prevent the consolidation of Communism in Chile.

The military coup took place in about a day. Each branch of the military acted in different places at the same time in a United fashion. The current President Allende was in his palace among his supporters when, “the armed forces executed the coup efficiently, achieving their objective in just a few hours” (43). At the same time, “ the military seized control of Concepcion, the country’s third largest city, with a speed that surprised the military, who did not have to use their weapons” while, “the navy’s efficacy has also been recognized in its rapid occupation of Valparaiso, the country’s second most important city” (43). After a quickly take over of the most important cities, and the Presidential palace, the next step was to establish the military as the new government. On the same day of the coup General Pinochet was appointed president of the junta and the three main pillars of the new system were defined as the constituent, legislative, and executive powers. In order to fully establish the new government, “ the junta acted quickly, immediately declaring Congress disbanded. The parties belonging to the Popular Unity were now outside the law, treated as ‘illegal associations,’ and ordered to dissolve, with all their goods confiscated by the state”(44). Any party that refused such as the PDC had steps taken against them. In order to ensure that no one would be against the new government, the junta appointed all new mayors and other politicians. According to Carlos Huneeus, there were three decisions that made the most impact in the establishment of the new order. The first decisions was by General Leigh to give a speech against Marxism and bomb the Presidential palace as an example. The second decisions General Pinochet to create the National Intelligence Directorate as a security service to fight against Marxism. And the third was by General Stark to speed up the military trail resulting in the death of 72 people.

While the Pinochet Regime did not impact a particular gender or race, it would have placed a large impact of the working class of Chile. They were no longer it what was considered a free country and were now at under the military. While the new order was being established and beginning the search for Communists and Marxists, any person could be under scrutiny and in danger of bein

Reply

CosmoK

8/20/2017 07:54:33 pm

When evaluating the methods used by Pinochet to establish his authoritarian regime it must be taken into consideration that, prior to the 1973 coup, the political and economic crisis bestowed power onto the military arms. And these prerevolutionary conditions are discussed in great detail by the author as it is argued that “the style prevalent at the beginning established the character of the new regime” including the military’s seizure of power originating from President Allende’s term (32). The political polarization, occurring after the 1970 election, which manifested military intervention, established the use of extreme violence and other methods of coercion that would be later taken advantage of by Pinochet in his usurpation of major institutions including the judiciary and the media.
The same day of the coup a junta was created, consisting of the commanders in chief of each of the three branches of the armed forces. Pinochet was appointed President and immediately disbanded not only congress but treated all parties belonging to Popular Unity as “illegal associations”. The government also exiled senators of the opposition party, such as Renan Fuentalba who had been president of The Christian Democratic Party, and forbade opposition abroad by banning Chileans or foreigners who encouraged doctrines that threatened the country’s social order. These measures can be considered political as they were always legally backed to prevent action through the courts and were supposed to “establish a new legal system that would legitimize the coercive measures, such as exile, justifying them as mere administrative decisions” (45). Public service also suffered the consequences of limited synchronization as political motives were justifiable to fire most staff who were apart of all state-administered institutions. Pinochet’s method of creating a new political order allowed authority to be centralized in the junta, making it the most powerful body in Chile.
A notable aspect of the military was the battlefield mentality that was practiced, approaching the Popular Unity as a movement containing armed groups and thus Marxism was approached with a war plan. The author claims that three events solidified the coerciveness of the Pinochet regime. One of them being the development of a special security service known as DINA, created by Pinochet a few days after the coup, which acted to carry out the fight against Marxism and gathered intelligence to formulate policy and protect the country’s development. However, in reality it acted to consolidate General Pinochet’s personal power. Not only did it plan to fight Marxism in Chile, but abroad as well and accordingly it created a Foreign Department which is held responsible for multiple attacks including the one that killed Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, opponents of Pinochet, in Washington D.C. (The succeeding articles discuss the relationship between foreign affairs and the Chilean economy; however, during this particular chapter economic methods are not discussed). DINA gained an immense amount of power and its operations became more radical contributing greatly to Pinochet’s consolidation of power.
If institutions “voluntarily acquiesce and accept the conditions imposed by new authorities” limited synchronization can be achieved, for example the Chilean judiciary expressed its support for the junta as soon as it had established itself (54). As long as the military regime held power human rights were ignored and courts had less motivation to maintain moral principles than they did during the Popular Unity government. Even though it is emphasized by the author that the shift in judiciary behavior was not imposed by government policy it was still a method in which Pinochet established his authoritarian regime. The court’s support for the new authorities was emphasized the most when judges and court officials were expelled under the accusations of being Marxists. Overall, the judiciaries’ voluntary synchronization allowed, or created conditions for, the use of coercion by Pinochet and the military regime. Other institutions that were taken over by the government were the media, as all left-wing newspapers were shut down and all publications that the government thought acted as threats were harassed, and universities. Censorship was practiced as the National Directorate of Social Communication was established and the new authorities had the power to shape the structure of many Chilean universities, firing professors and administrative staff while applying measures against students to politically neutralize them.
Pinochet’s methods included taking advantage of the military’s seizure of power in Chile and creating a radical coercive style of rule. It censored many institutions, silencing his opposition, and allowed for the new regime’s discourse to b

Reply

Calavera

8/20/2017 10:25:02 pm

1. Military coup in a rapid seizure of power (political)
The overthrow of the Allende government was relatively rapid, considering no preexisting climate of armed confrontations between the guerrillas and military, as in Argentina. Contributing to an economic and political crisis, Allende’s government had previously, in an attempt to redistribute incomes, authorized large wage increases and froze prices. Allende also printed large amounts of unsupported currency to erase the fiscal deficit created by the government’s purchase of basic industries. By 1972 Chile was suffering from stagnant production, decreased exports and private-sector investment, exhausted financial reserves, widespread strikes, rising inflation, food shortages, and domestic unrest. Allende’s inability to control his own radical left-wing supporters further incurred the hostility of the middle class. With Congress unable to work toward a political solution, responsibility to resolve the crisis lay on the military, thus contributing to a dependence upon the authoritarian regime for a solution to the country’s political unrest.

2. Centralizing authority in a governing junta (political)
Establishing the basis for a new political order, the junta became the main decision-making body to legitimize coercive measures. Defining a governing system on same day as coup, Congress was disbanded and a junta formed with full constituent, legislative, and executive powers. The parties belonging to the Popular Unity were ordered to dissolve, with the Pinochet regime utilizing an anti-Marxist discourse and giving preferential treatment to the parties in opposition to Popular Unity to promote cooperation between individuals of the National Party and of the Christian Democratic Party. Pinochet took measures against internal and external opposition, ordering that all parties must dissolve when members of the PDC announced their condemnation of the coup and banning the entry of anyone into Chile with opposing ideas to the regime.

3. Implementation of Limited Synchronization (political and social)
The use of this method enabled Pinochet’s regime to fire staff belonging to left-wing parties. Pinochet’s legitimation strategy was also based on the adoption of a series of constitutional measures (including the formation of a council of state and the promulgation of the 1980 constitution) in an attempt to provide the regime with a legal basis and to ensure its long-term existence, legitimizing coercive measures, such as exile, by justifying them as administrative decisions. Voluntary as well as forced synchronization came in the form of the Chilean Supreme Court limiting its own authority to review sentences and the regime declaring the country in the state of siege and emergency so that the state of exception became a continuous component of the political order. Pinochet’s power further increased when the new government resorted to states of exception to neutralize the judiciary, which remained passive and ignored human rights violations. The authoritarian regime furthermore usurped the country’s media, closing down left-wing newspapers and radio, as well as restructuring the university system, as with the case of Catholic University.

4. The Systemization and Individualization of Terror (political and social)
Following the coup, General Leigh and military forces decided to bomb La Moneda Palace, though not militarily necessary. Outside of Santiago, Pinochet determined that relations between military commanders and provincial authorities were not as hostile as desired; he assigned General Sergio Arellano Stark, known as “The Wolf” for his ruthlessness, to lead officers on a “caravan of death” to torture and kill citizens accused of minor misdemeanors. In regards to classes affect, the victims were primarily grassroots political leaders, workers, and academics, with Pinochet’s orders to speed up trials in military tribunals further establishing the climate of war in Chile and the authoritarian nature of the regime. An additional method of inciting terror within citizens was linked to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and its director Colonel Manuel Contreras, created on Pinochet’s directive. The DINA served merge Pinochet’s personal power as a symbol of the regime’s repressive nature. The DINA dismantled the Communist Party, weakened the Socialist Party, and destroyed the ultra-left-wing group MIR. Creating a terroristic climate both at home and abroad, DINA monitored the government’s top officials, carried out searches and arrests without warrants, operated detention centers of torture, and sought the support of ultra-right-wing Italian groups. Collectively, these methods heightened the atmosphere of war, generating a climate of fear in the population to perpetuate the regime’s authority.

Reply

pickles

8/21/2017 08:23:13 pm

As Pinochet took military power over Chile, the stabilized democratic system that once stood was manipulated once more after the first attempt in 1960s. Conflict began in 1970 following Allende’s search for power, being a marxist he believed in a social/communist state. To put this issue into perspective, the United States led by Richard Nixon, was in the middle of controlling the spread of communist and ultimately feared for the future of Chile. Whether or not the United States had anything to do with the failure of Allende’s presidency is not clear but it’s significant when the U.S. begins to support the regime of Pinochet which used military power to control the political and economic mess left by Allende. The coup left a power vacuum for a controlling regime built of military power and a military leader such as Pinochet. In order to successfully complete the coup and obtain power, Allende was removed from power. The methods that were used by Pinochet to establish his authoritarian regime included social, political and economic issues. These three components rightfully foretold the future of Chile after Allende. Shifting a democracy to the extreme socialist country th;at Allende wanted ultimately failed. Allende, once asserted into power, focused on returning economic control exerted by foreign countries. While returning such power to the nation, the country benefitted for a short amount of time and obtained better education, free milk for the poor, a chance to eradicate taxes on the poor,and raise minimum wage while fixating on price of produce. Problems arose from the shortages of food, but it didn't stop there. Allende also nationalized the mining industry that produces one of the biggest trade, copper. Once the price of copper fell the production rate dropped, due to anti-capitalist decisions taken by Allende, Chile’s economy was devastated. In order to ‘fix’ this problem, Allende thought it best to print more money resulting in widespread inflation. Overall the economy was bleeding from poor decision and poor leadership, therefore when taken out of power, Pinochet used the weakness of the economy as a tool to build his regime. In addition to that, Pinochet coordinately used violence to gain reigns over the social crisis (city of Santiago) and political crisis within Popular Unity. The people were to be grateful to the military for saving from communism, moreover Chile’s armed forces were acting within the democratic institutions. With violence and evidence of detrimental loss and destruction of the economy and failure of the socialist government, the military elected Pinochet head of the junta which became the main decision making body. The coup took an impact on those who had been involved with Allende including political leaders, workers, and academics. The middle-class supporters of Allende who lead the resistance against the military stood outside La Moneda but were eliminated by the military. Overall, the impact that the military had on the people extended to everyone whom had supported or been a part of the Socialist Party. That range of people went as far as women to political leaders and all the way to the Church and universities. Most of this violence however, came from Contreras leader of the DINA. The violence exerted through the DINA was highly criticized for it at one point helped Pinochet gain control and power but afterwards backfired from the strong foreign condemnation of the military regime.

Reply

Mexicano Blanco

8/21/2017 10:56:14 pm

Following the coup, Pinochet employed a variety of methods to establish and ensure the well-being of his authoritarian regime. The Junta, the governing body created, “invested itself with full constituent, legislative and executive powers” (44) and disbanded the congress and parties belonging to the Popular Unity were treated as illegal. By assigning itself all the governing powers, the junta had no other body to check its power and thus had full authority to do as it saw fit, or as the leader, Pinochet, saw fit. Moreover, by disbanding congress, the junta eliminated the way for others to limit its powers and law making abilities which allowed it to outlaw its biggest opposition the popular government. In addition, whenever measures were taken against the opposition they were “arbitrary but always had some legal foundation to avoid action through the courts” (45) This was an important as it allowed for the junta to remain in power and make decisions as it saw fit without the challenges of the court and the risk of a vote in court turning against the government. The fact that the measures were legal centralized all power with the junta and left no power to the opposition and prevented a third party from challenging decisions or rulings. To further consolidate the power in the junta, it “appointed new mayors, resorting to local personalities or retired officers” (45) This resulted in the junta having the support of local governments and thus it had to pay less attention to the smaller areas and could focus on larger national issues while the local governments focused on the municipalities enforcing the national laws. Since the junta decided which mayors to appoint, these were obviously figures who the junta knew would support and uphold the decrees of the regime, thus consolidating the power not only on a national level, but at a municipal scale as well. All of these were political methods used to establish the regime, other political methods included the centralized authority in the governing junta, which meant that al the power to govern was within one small group who could not be challenged or opposed by any other legit political entity and the lack of politicization in the armed forces as these controlled most of the positions crucial to running the country; with the lack of politicization, the leaders were loyal to Pinochet and not focused on their own agendas. However, Pinochet also employed a series of social methods which helped him establish his regime; the most significant of these was maintaining the climate of war. By doing so, obtained an excuse to use violence with the pretext that it was to prevent the rise of Marxism the second was to keep the judiciary in a state of siege thereby limiting its power. Furthermore, Pinochet’s opposition resorting to violent means only “gave him [Pinochet] an excuse to maintain the repression.” (39) and the violence as it was under the claim that it was waging war against the Marxists. To this extent, the DINA “contributed substantially to the consolidation of Pinochet’s power” (53) as they were his main tool to wage war on Marxism. The DINA was responsible for the torturing, killing and disappearing of hundreds of people, which instilled fear in the Chilean population; moreover, due to the undercover DINA agents, talking about any sort of uprising or even complaining about the government was dangerous as a DINA agent could be listening and take you in. The DINA was key to Pinochet’s power because it was his main tool of maintaining control over the masses. All of the methods were applicable to all, regardless of sex; the DINA could make a man disappear as easy as they could make a woman. As a matter of fact, this lack of sexual discrimination made Pinochet’s methods more effective as no one was safe from the regime.

Reply

Noble Consort Jing

8/23/2017 09:16:00 pm

Installing the Authoritarian Regime
The main method used by Pinochet to establish his authoritarian regime centered around the practice of garnering the approval of the citizenry to continue the use of violence. Despite the coup having successfully overthrown the government, Pinochet sought the public’s approval of the continued use of violence under the guise of a war against guerrilla groups. This tactic can be regarded as a social issue due to its appeal to the public’s concerns over safety. The backbone of the regime is based upon the use of the approved coercion that the author frequently alludes to. Considering the chronic issues that universally plagued the Chilean region for the latter half of the twentieth century, it is evident that the combination of public support for the eradication of guerilla groups and the need for stability facilitated the use of coercion and violence to uphold Pinochet’s regime. The main ramification of this tactic was the impact on the lower classes. By instilling distrust between groups throughout the lower classes an environment where nobody was safe came to fruition which ultimately eroded trust amongst the masses. The lack of unification in the lower classes lead to increased strife which only further propelled the regime’s narrative of guerrilla centered strife.
In addition to the continuous use of violence under the guise of ending the exaggerated violence caused by guerilla groups Pinochet also used a method of political unity to quickly seize the government and install his regime. More specifically Pinochet ensured that the small group of commanders, the junta, were unified in their conquest to capture the government. Due to the lack of internal dissidence seen in other conflicts mentioned by the author such as those in Spain and Argentina, the execution of the coup was swift and efficient. Consequently, the junta was able to form a platform upon which to base ideology and disband the current organizations. Although the transfer of power was not peaceful, Huneeus emphasizes that the acquisition of power was relatively smooth for the newly formed junta. The impact on the average citizen of Chile was negligible largely due to the lack of the ousted government’s resistance to the coup. The ironic impact of the passive coup is seen in the progressive increase in violence as the authoritarian regime struggled to hold onto power in the 1990s. Ultimately this methodology resulted in what Huneeus refers to as Limited Synchronization. Limited Synchronization arguably had more impact on the average Chilean than the coup itself due to its profound reorganization of the public sector. Through Limited Synchronization the junta ensured that all public sector positions of authority remained in the grasp of the regime by using a system of politically driven appointments and firings. Overall, the introduction of these newly appointed members of the regime to local governmental resulted in a feeling of distrust between locals and the newly created government.

Reply

green tea

8/24/2017 03:46:55 pm

Pinochet used various methods of economic, social, and (mainly) political nature to establish his authoritarian regime in Chile. Though it should be noted that none of the methods, at least from this reading, seemed to have any kind of gender bias, his methods did share one common thread: eliminating the opposition and the potential for future opposition.

The first method he did to establish this kind of regime was the use of violence against anyone in opposition to the coup. This was a largely political method due to how it was carried out, by establishing agencies such as the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) to rid the country of Marxism. The unconventional and violent methods of DINA effectively disbanded the Communist party and, combined with fast, unjust, and deadly military trials, created a climate of fear among the civilian population of Chile, according to the reading's author (p.46). By creating this climate of fear, Pinochet effectively got rid of vocal opposition and willingness among the people--specifically Chile's working class, who had according to the author demonstrated an ability and willingness to work against the government in the past--to challenge the new regime. Furthermore, Pinochet used economic class boundaries as a kind of license to use violence. As political ideologies seemed to be largely aligned with economic class, hatred and resentment grew between citizens of opposing political and economic backgrounds and they became increasingly polarized leading up to and shortly after the coup (p.34). This led to a civilian tolerance of violence against those who were political or economic opposites. Because of this civilian tolerance of violence, Pinochet was able to use it relatively without consequence against heavily opposed groups like communists and socialists to establish a more unopposed regime.

The second method under the elimination of opposition was the limited synchronization of government and linkage institutions, a political means of establishing the regime. The judiciary in Chile quickly cooperated with the new regime, largely due to the state's of exception implemented almost continuously by Pinochet in the 1970s (p.54). The judiciary allowed the military courts to make unsupervised trials and sentences, many of them unjust, and accepted the limitations placed on it by the Pinochet regime. Furthermore, the judiciary began to join in the process of getting rid of Marxists associated with the court and defended the actions of the regime to the rest of the world. This synchronization allowed for the effective seizure of power by the Pinochet regime as it made for a more cohesive and cooperative government that was less easily opposed. Pinochet also took measures to synchronize Chile's media and political system from the beginning, starting with the forced dissolution of opposition political parties, and eventually the initially cooperative Christian Democratic Party. Furthermore, the regime fired opposing civilians in public service positions and quickly replaced them with supporters and associates of the regime to make a more solid government entity. Finally, Pinochet began the process of censoring and synchronizing the media, which leads into the third and final method Pinochet used to establish an effective regime: indoctrination.

Indoctrination was the most social of the methods Pinochet used, though it had political elements as well. Pinochet first took advantage of the people's desire for order in the face of political and economic crisis to justify the coup and make the military seem like the heroes that saved the country and establish a harsh and orderly authoritarian regime that was difficult to oppose. Pinochet then took control of the media through forced disbanding of opposition party newspapers, radio broadcasts, and magazines, and censored those remaining to be rather uncritical of the regime. Finally, the placement of political allies at the heads of all the major universities in Chile helped to complete the indoctrination process. These university heads gradually dismissed any opposing university staff and replaced them with regime supporters, making education a politicized nationalist experience. Through the control of the media and universities as well as taking advantage of the people's desire for order in crisis, Pinochet attempted to eliminate any potential for opposition among his people by controlling the information that would shape their political beliefs and opinions.

Through each of these economic, social, and political methods, Pinochet established his regime efficiently and quickly eliminated the potential for any immediate opposition, which led to swift and at least temporary success at creating an orderly authoritarian regime.

Reply

Cosmo

8/25/2017 04:47:11 pm

In the reading, the author explains that the use of societal violence was done because people denounced their political views and in order to execute and go through Plan Z. whenever civilians denounced any political official or anyone who is a part of the government, the military has to get involved and sometime the civilian who is denouncing other is arrested. Plan Z was “formulated by left-wing party leaders to violently seize power.” The military wanted to stop the country from falling into communism, so they formulated Plan Z and the “citizens owed a debt of gratitude to the military. This plan was used to help establish an authoritarian regime because it limited many political freedoms the citizens had. Plan Z and the use of violence was not directed towards a specific gender and/or a specific class during the time. Another justification of violence by the military towards the civilians at the time was that “the country was at war.”

Pinochet helped increase the political power of Chile by seizing the presidential palace of La Moneda and attempting to end the “Marxist Cancer.” In order to continue with this plan, tree decisions were made by leaders and generals a part of the military. General Gustavo Leigh, head of the air force, made the first decision and it was to bomb the palace of La Moneda and declared a war on Marxism. The second decision was made by Pinochet himself and it was to create a special security service to fight against Marxism. The third was made by another army general and it was to speed up the trials of enemy members in court during wartime, which lead to seventy-two people assassinated. These three decisions were meant to help Pinochet to get closer to the authoritarian regime and these decisions specifically target the Marxists.

Reply

Alime

8/25/2017 06:09:18 pm

Augusto Pinochet’s organized coup, overthrowing the Chilean presidency of Salvador Allende, was maintained through the extensive placement of military officials across politically, socially, and economically significant, and influential sectors of the community. Pinochet’s establishment of a military dictatorship was his first method of establishing his authoritarian regime, allowing the government to become militaristic. This method allowed Pinochet to maintain control over the Chilean government quickly as he had the entirety of the armed forces supporting him. This use of a militaristic approach was politically based as it dealt with the establishment of his regime, impacting no particular gender or class, rather, Chile as a whole, as this new military dictatorship was new to the Chilean people. Pinochet utilized these military connections to gain power over all social outlets in the Chilean communities, being his second method of establishing his regime. Prior to his official overthrow of the Allende regime, Pinochet took power over all media outlets within Chile, such as, local and national radio stations, television shows, and newspapers. Pinochet placed military leaders in high positions within all of these media outlets to ensure that only his ideology was being promoted and there was no opposition of his rising regime. In addition to taking control over media outlets, Pinochet took control over universities, allowing him to further extend his authoritarian regime prior to the official overthrow of the Allende government. Similar to the media outlets, Pinochet placed high-ranking military officials in high positions of power within the universities across Chile to ensure that there was no ideology being promoted that opposed his, allowing for the early maintenance of any resistance. Pinochet’s second and third methods proved to be socially based, and affecting all classes as well as genders. In the early stages of Pinochet’s regime, and his rise to power, Pinochet had not clearly utilized any economic methods promoting his regime. The use of these methods allowed for a swift overthrow of Allende’s government, and allowed Pinochet to rise to power with ease.

Reply

Matthew

8/25/2017 06:57:04 pm

President Salvador Allende’s Chilean government ceased to exist once the new authoritarian regime led by General Augusto Pinochet was established. Allende’s attempts at implementing socialistic polices would ultimately cause economic changes that forced the military to intervene within politics. The coup of September 11th, 1973 was the tipping point in which politics turned away from a public leadership towards a military authoritarian regime. In order to successfully establish an authoritarian government Pinochet utilized various methods, some of the most prominent being the fear towards Marxism, the control of the judiciary and legislative systems, and the censorship of the press.
The rejection of Marxism/communism allowed Pinochet to implement various actions through the justification of the abolition of Plan Z and a dictablanda. Plan Z was published in the Libro Blanco of Chile after the coup took place, and it explains how Plan Z was a plan in which the people would be armed with weapons and create guerillas in order to attack the government. There was never any actual proof that this plan ever took effect due to the lack weapons available for the ‘rebels.’ It is believed that the Pinochet regime used the Libro Blanco as a way to gain political power and the people’s consent of force; after all, “The violence was applied by the military, but it was defended by rightwing sectors convinced of the need for the military to act decisively against the Marxists” (38). In addition to Plan Z, Pinochet took advantage of the people’s acceptance of a dictatorship and kept implementing coercion in a daily matter. This was due to the fact that ‘the country expects and applauds the … harshness and decisiveness, … and that turning the dictatorship into a “dictabalnda” would be an error” in the people’s eyes (38).
In addition of fear, the authoritarian government became successful due to the fact that they convinced the legislative and judiciary branches to follow the new regime. One of the main goals of the new regime was for their questionable activities to become legal, so through their juntas (which consisted of the major Generals) they altered the system. As the article states, “The new government was concerned with establishing a legal system that would legitimize the coercive measures, such as exile, justifying them as mere administrative decisions” (45). Another clear demonstration of their power is the administration of new decrees such as: Decree Law no. 1, 3, 5, 6, 25, 98, 604, and 2881, in which all of them helped to legitimize and protect their actions with the excuse of the betterment of Chile. Apart from the legislative branch, the new regime also controlled the judiciary branch. During Enrique Urrutia Manzano’s presidency of the Supreme Court the judiciary branch favored the regime. Urrutia often publically defended the government’s human rights policy but in the background he also agreed with “policies that restricted public freedoms, rejecting categorically the criticisms raised by some international bodies” (56).These actions helped the public calm down but in reality no action was taking place against the regime. The control of both the judiciary and legislative branches of government provided security from consequences to Pinochet’s regime and provided the necessary resources to establish the authoritarian government.
Lastly, the suppression of the press allowed for the government to obtain a greater degree of social control. Immediately after the coup the military ceased control of the media such as radio stations and newspapers and decided to immediately close down left-wing associated press such as El siglo and Noticias de Ultima Hora. In addition, those that were not closed down faced economic hardships due to the lack of support from the government; one case is that of La Prensa, in which “economic difficulties and harassment from the government … forced it to close in February 1974” (57-58). Apart from dismantling the press, the government also established the National Directorate of Social Communication (DlNACOS). Its main function was to “enforce press censorship” and it “played its role rigorously” (58). Through the censorship the government could freely control the people’s information and led them towards the approval of the regime.
Pinochet’s authoritarian government became so efficient due to their public image and rejection of rebellion. Through the anti-Marxist, anti-guerrillas campaigns, the censorship of the press and control of the branches of government a curtain was set as a method to hide the reality and violence of the regime. This curtain became so efficient due to the image it represented, one of protection which allowed for the successful establishment of the authoritarian regime.

Reply

tbird2000

8/25/2017 07:25:50 pm

Throughout the article on The Pinochet Regime all mentioned the same method which was through the evidence of violence. Most of the information in the article is about the way how the problems that Chile’s Pinochet regime has and most of it happened while discussing how violent actions will be taken. This point can be explained by, “The focus of this analysis of Chile’s Pinochet regime highlights the importance of the way power was seized and how this influenced the subsequent character of the regime.” (43) and this point also explains how it can be identified as a political method because power is being seized. The method that was used was to seize control and by using military and violence, and the violence can get worse because, “terrorist activities were not directed only at the military or their representatives, but also at leaders of associations connected with the rightist wing of Peronism.” (41) and this continued to expand the violence because military continues to know more techniques and measures. Most of the methods impact mainly class than gender because military is only trying to seize power that affects class at the most.

Reply

srtw

8/25/2017 09:45:38 pm

Chile’s revolution gave rise to extreme violence which has significance in not only the enormous human costs involved, especially during the weeks after coup, but also given that this violence became a distinguishing feature of the new political order. Essentially, violence was used as if it were a legitimate resource and remained latent through 1988, becoming manifest on several occasions, especially when oppositions developed against it. The economic and political crises within Chile were understood to be the reasons of the country’s coup, however in developing the coup, the violence that ensued was unjustifiable apart from the fact of suppressing any other factions that could also rise. Allende’s government was moving toward socialist economic and political reforms which faced stern opposition from businesspeople and segments of the labor and student movements. The economic crisis sped the radicalization of the middle-class sectors and groups who showed an enormous capacity for mobilizing against the government, subsequently Allende introduced military officers into his cabinet under the army commander in chief. The comptroller-general’s office, a national body of constitutional status responsible for monitoring the legality and constitutionality of the administration’s actions, started to lose its neutrality with top officials beginning to oppose the government. Politicization also affected the armed, which Popular Unity’s supports considered defenders of the capitalist order, and the army’s top officers gradually took political stances. The growing polarization weakened the chances of Allende and the PDC reaching an agreement, while Pinochet was able to seize the opportunity and take Carlos Prats’ position as army commander in chief to proclaim a necessity for military intervention to stabilize the government. Pinochet was able to capitalize on the people’s tolerance for violence by spreading the ideology of presented by thesis in the Libro Blanco—the “civil war”—which proclaimed that foreigners were leading a guerilla movement similar to that of Argentina’s in order to overtake the government. Moreover, Pinochet used this ideology to impede the execution of Plan Z. formulated by the left-wing party leaders to violently seize power. This was a political method used by Pinochet to denounce Marxist/socialist ideology. Furthermore, in Chile, civilians and the military justified the use of violence by arguing that the country was at war, and that the war did not end with the military’s rapid seizure of power. By appealing to the people’s sense of patriotism, which initially instigated support for the coup, Pinochet was able to implement a social method to uphold the use of violence which was essential to his authoritarian control. Pinochet also used a political method denouncing the left by seizing their symbolic city of Concepcion. Furthermore, Pinochet was able to expand his authoritarian control by implementing the junta, a governing body formed by the commanders in chief of each of the three branches of the armed forces and the director of the Carabineros, while junta was given full constituent, legislative, and executive powers with Pinochet appointed as its president. Pinochet also placed the parties in opposition to Popular Unity “in recess”, thus enabling preferential treatment to promote cooperation between professional and technocrats of the National Party and those of the Christian Democratic Party. The regime also legitimized its authoritarian rule by acting against the magazines that wrote articles against it such as the Politica y Espiritu which was banned outright. Moreover, the government took the measure of establishing a legal system that would legitimize the coercive measures it took, such as exile, while justifying them as mere administrative decisions and giving the regime the freedom to spread its violence. Additionally, by issuing Decree Law no. 604, the Chilean government banned the entry of Chileans of foreigners who “propagated or encouraged doctrines that tend to destroy or alter through violent the country’s social order or system of government,” hence ensuring that an external rebellion wouldn’t materialize. Pinochet’s regime also brought local governments under its control by emplacing new rulers approved and appointed by the governing junta, while suspending mayors and city councilors of municipalities of the country due to the “need to harmonize the organization and functions of municipalities within national territory.” Through Limited synchronization, the government was also able to control all aspects of public service, in which all state-administered institution personnel, except for judicial employees and those in the national comptroller’s office, therefore making it possible to use political motive to fire staff be

Reply

Captain Keating

8/25/2017 10:45:54 pm

1st method – it is a social and political method of sending trusted men to go ahead and eliminate the members of groups that were opposed to his regime and ideology. This is to not only prevent a counterrevolution against his newly established regime, but also provide the people of Chile with a single ideology to follow or look up to.
2nd method – Pinochet affects the social aspect of Chile by censoring the media to only include positive things regarding the newly established government, leading to a biased manner in which the people would obtain their news.
3rd – political and social method of overthrowing the previous government to form his own would be the form in which Pinochet and the armed forces went about taking over control of important cities throughout the country. “The military seized control of Concepci6n. the country’s third largest city. with a speed that surprised the military. who did not have to use their weapons in the process. The city was a major symbol of the left, with a large manufacturing area, powerful unions, and a major private university where the MIR had considerable influence… The navy's efficacy has also been recognized in its rapid occupation of Valparaiso. the country’s second most important city. With support from other branches of the armed forces, it took control of the many industries and two universities quickly and with no setbacks, having silenced the local radio stations early in the morning” (44). This was critical as it lead up to the coup d’état, while also cementing the seriousness and commitment of the armed forces in overthrowing the government.

Reply

wonder woman

8/25/2017 11:12:32 pm

1. The methods in which Pinochet developed his regime can be viewed as political; despite affecting the social and economic aspect of society, it related back to his political powers. The author states that “political violence in Argentina…was the product of political and economic conditions arising from the military regime” and this depicts the linkage between the social and political aspects of his ruling. Pinochet’s regime effected the social aspect of the society as it created tension; due to political disagreements, an “atmosphere of political violence” arouse, thus creating social and political problems. Pinochet’s regime effected the economical factor of the society as his ruling resulted in loss of businesses. Although his ruling did not have a major impact of the economy, all three were present during his regime.
2. An authoritarian regime is defined as a government with a dictator, Pinochet, being an example of an authoritarian ruler, established an authoritarian regime by the means of dictating the civilians, by seizing power, and by enforcing a Marxist ideology. The author states that “the focus of this analysis of Chile’s Pinochet regime highlights the importance of the way power was seized and how this influenced the subsequent character of the regime” and by stating this, the author portrays a way in which Pinochet established his authoritarian regime, with seizing the power. In an authoritarian regime, it is common that the citizens rebel against the government due to a variation in ideology. Different ideology was evident when the “Popular Unity parties carried an anti – Marxist component”. A repercussion of an authoritarian regime is the fear incited within the citizens, and it is evident when the author states that Pinochet’s initiatives “heightened the atmosphere of war among the officer of the armed forces and their civilian supporters, generating a climate of fear among the population”. .
3. The methods used by Pinochet impacted the lower and middle class as they had to endure the repercussion of his regime. As stated in the other readings, the middle class lost their businesses and children were no longer able to find jobs or be able to afford college tuition. Despite experiencing economic problems, the citizens also endured unfair rulings within the courts. The author states that “the courts ignored human rights violation” and this depicts how the lower and middle class were not treated in the way they should have been treated.

Reply

ConnyConnor

8/25/2017 11:37:25 pm

1a. Military
1b. The military in this perspective influenced the establishment of the authoritarian regime through its quick and efficient motions of achieving its goals to execute the coup. It was able to secure the control over “Concepcion, the country’s third largest city,” through its unified fashion and the abundance of support from the presidential palace and working-class communities. The Navy also had a large influence as it occupied the 2nd most important city very quickly, taking only 270 people prisoner. It was able to quickly take the cities and cause normalcy to return to the citizens.
1c. The attacks from the military impacted the students (academics) in some “isolated skirmishes” but did not impact the working class as many of the places worked normally due to the military’s control.
2a. Political
2b. The political junta influenced the establishment of the authoritarian regime through the formation of the commanders in chief of each of the three branches of the armed forces and the director of the Carabineros, causing the Congress to disband. They also used an anti-Marxist component to order the dissolution of the Popular Unity parties, promoting the cooperation between professionals and technocrats of the National Party and the Christian Democratic Party.
2c. The political advances were used against the higher class, while many leaders were brought down, and new rulers were substituted into these governments. These laws include the “Decree Law no. 25 that suspended the mayors and city councilors of municipalities of the country.” Decree Law no. 6. of September II. 1973. made "temporary" all state-administered institution personnel. except for judicial employees and those in the national comptrol-
ler's office. This decision made it possible to use political motives to fire staff belonging to left-wing parties.
3a. Military
3b. General Leigh was a scapegoat through Pinochet as his leadership of the airship was removed and his authority and power had been consolidated. This also showed Pinochet’s association in the military coup.
3c. Groups including politicians were influenced in Marxism were affected as the first decision was to bomb La Moneda Palace and General Gustavo Leigh’s speech declaring that war on Marxism. The second decision was to create the National Intelligence Directorate, creating new jobs for high class politicians. The third decision was to speed up trials, which led to the assassination of seventy-two people in what
has become known as the "caravan of death."
4a. Military
4b. Arellano’s contribution was of the military aspect as he used his “caravan of death” to slaughter many victims who were accused of minor misdemeanors. This violence rooted from one of the first five army officers who planned the coup.
4c. Grassroot political leaders, workers, academics, and men from political parties were all slaughtered, many whom who were accused based on minor misdemeanors. DINA’s contribution to Pinochet’s regime was to internally suppress rebels and enforcing unfair trials.
5a. Political
5b. The judiciary branch of the military was restricted, their purpose to resolve emergency situations and then cease effect. Many trials were seriously flawed in both form and substance, and had failed to prove the crimes “attributed to the accused,” leaving doubts in the occurrence of the crimes.
5c. Injustices were placed on many of the workers of the high class and the academics as they were victims of unfair trials.
6a. Political / Economical
6b. The newspaper’s role was extremely important as it was an information source providing valuable information on political developments, despite the limitations imposed by the censorship of the press. Its influence on the public prevented it from being shut down.
6c. This influenced the businesspeople who bought the company, turning the reliable information source into a radio station that continued to function, despite the government’s constant censorship. It also influenced the people as it was a reliable source of information to the public, preventing the newspaper from being completely shut down.

Reply

winnie the bergs

8/26/2017 12:40:35 am

The methods used by Pinochet to establish his authoritarian regime were driven by violence. Violence was the main method used in order to achieve an authoritarian regime. An example of violence would be a thesis documented in the Libro Blanco, stating that “the main justification for the use of violence was to impede the execution of Plan Z, formulated by left-wing party leaders to violently seize power. According to this logic, the military had to lead a coup to save the country from communism, so citizens owed a debt of gratitude to the military.” (37) This specific example affected civilians, making it a social problem. This relates to the authoritarian regime because it is opposed to communism and Pinochet was anti-communist. The use of violence seemed to be the only option in order to successfully overthrow the government and establish an authoritarian regime. Violence was also a means to exterminate any political opposition: “To definitely dissolve the state of war it was essential to complete the lengthy task of neutralizing any possible capacity for regrouping of the extremist paramilitary groups, whose degree of preparation for war, of political organization and armed power was impossible to measure with exactitude as long as they had not been militarily annulled.” (39) The military regime continually used violence as justification for combatting oppositional groups and preventing future rebellions. Another reason that the military used violence was the economic crisis. “The economic crisis sped the radicalization of middle-class sectors and groups who showed an enormous capacity for mobilizing against the government; they achieved a major political impact with their October 1972 strike.” (33) This economic crisis played a huge role in creating opposition against the government and thus caused them to turn to violence as a means to regain control. When establishing his regime, there were three main decisions that led to a highly coercive nature to the regime: the decision by General Gustavo Leigh to bomb La Moneda Palace and his speech declaring that war on Marxism was one of the new regime’s priorities, the decision by Pinochet, army commander in chief, to create National Intelligence Directorate as a special security service to carry out the fight against Marxism, and the decision by army general Manuel Contreras, under Pinochet’s orders, to speed up trials in military tribunals in the country’s northern region, leading to the assassination of seventy-two people in what has become known as the “caravan of death.” (46) These decisions affected the population politically and socially, as fear was instilled into them through means of violence. They were highly political because those who were opposed, or supported Marxism, would be hunted after and executed. His authoritarian regime used violence and fear as means of establishing it and continued using both to maintain control.

Reply

aob

8/26/2017 05:45:35 am

1. TYPE OF METHOD: Political
2. One of the methods used by Pinochet in order to establish his authoritarian regime
was his decision to go forth with the bombing at the presidential palace: La Moneda. Former president Salvador de Allende had always kept his own regime detached to any use or form of violence, and this act of force aimed to overpower him highlighted the nature of Pinochet’s regime, considering that they did not had any form of resistance nor plan to defend themselves against such attack. Thus, this event led Allende to surrender in a peaceful manner, and allowed for Pinochet to mark his first step towards a new form of government, one in which crime and force prevailed and a more neoliberal system had been imposed. In fact, his decision to order the bombing at La Moneda, was an “attempt to position his branch, the air force, as the party responsible for liberating the country.”
3. With a particular impact upon political institutions, this decision caused for distrust among the government, for as a building that once symbolized the freedom and national independence of the Chilean government, had been completely and utterly destroyed by Allende’s own military forces, those that had once swore loyalty to him.
1. TYPE OF METHOD: Social
2. In order to further exemplify his establishment of an authoritarian regime, Pinochet made the decision to create National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) as a special security service meant to carry out the fight against Marxism through violence. Though it was conceived as an advisory body, it soon became “instrumental to consolidating General Pinochet’s personal power.” DINA came to induce an atmosphere filled with terror among the opposition groups, and quickly highlighted the repressive character that the military had acquired. Far from a way to socialism, as former president Salvador Allende once attempted to drive the Chilean government towards, Pinochet’s decision rather imposed the destruction of a democracy and detachment of a dictatorship, marking one step closer towards the enforcement of obedience to authority, at the expense of the community’s personal freedom. Furthermore, in order to fight left-wing organizations as the communist party and MIR, DINA had to operate detention centers in which torture was used, which once again captures the nature of which this new authoritarian regine was bases of off.
3. This decision had a particular impact upon the government’s top officials, for DINA had the ability of monitoring them as they wished, and collecting private information about their personal lives, including professional performance. Moreover, DINA was also authorized to carry out searches or even arrests without a warrant, thus highlighting the corruption of personal rights and freedom that each citizen had before Pinochet’s authoritarian regime came forth.
1. TYPE OF METHOD: Social and Political
2. A third method used by Pinochet to establish his authoritarian regime was the decision by army general Sergio Arellano Stark, under General Pinochet’s orders to speed up trials in military tribunals in the country’s northern region due to the fact that relations between the military commanders and provincial authorities carried less repression, thus did not meet with the climate of war that Pinochet was attempting to expand. This therefore led to the deaths of seventy-two people in what today is known as the “caravan of death” due to the use of torture and cruelty. This initiative served to heighten the climate of war that Allende fought so much to stay away from, and instead marked Pinochet’s willingness to use violence and force as the foundation for his authoritarian regime.
3. The impact this decision had was greatly seen upon grassroots political leaders, workers, and academics. In almost all cases, as the article points out, victims were severely tortured, even maimed beyond recognition which goes to explain why most of them never returned to their families and rather buried in common graves. Most of the prisoners were taken from their prison and tortured in numerous ways, and instead of the media putting to light all the injustices that these men were experiencing when brutally killed by the Arellano team, it instead justified their deaths as having occurred during flight attempts or attacks on the military. Therefore, not only did it personally affect the victims of the Caravan of Death, but also the society that was being reported false news about their own citizens and government.

Reply

Justyne Thomas

8/28/2017 10:07:49 am

When Augusto Pinochet became the leader of Chile, three methods were used to establish his authoritarian regime. These methods were General Gustavo Leigh’s anti-Marxist actions incited partially by jealousy of Pinochet, Pinochet’s creation of the National Intelligence Directorate (NIDA) and his appointment of Manuel Contreras to lead it, and the decision of army general Sergio Arellano Stark speeding up military tribunals under Pinochet’s orders (46). General Gustavo Leigh was strongly anti -Marxist and he spoke out against Communism on multiple occasions and sought to be the new regimes strong man. He was motivated by his dislike for Pinochet who lead the regime, which was Leigh’s desire. Leigh viciously spoke out against Marxism and bombed the La Moneda Palace to try and create the image of himself as the person responsible for liberating the country (46). Pinochet inadvertently furthered his authoritarian regime by the jealousy he incited within General Leigh. An example of this is when Leigh realized that his air force men were leaving him to join NIDA, an unjust organization that disregarded due process in arresting and executing people, he created a similar structure within the air force to counter Pinochet. This just furthered the regime of Pinochet. These actions by Leigh were primarily political in nature as their purpose was to further his influence and to undermine General Pinochet. General Leigh’s actions affected class as the bombing of La Moneda Palace, the seat of the President of Chile and home of the offices of three cabinet ministers, affected the upper class and those with political import were persecuted. Leigh’s actions also effected those who were believed to be communists including political leaders, workers, and academics. The creation of NIDA by General Pinochet and the appointment of Manuel Contreras helped to promote the authoritarian regime as it served to create obedience by inciting fear among the citizens of Chile. NIDA disregarded the basic principles of due process and often arrested believed insurgents without warrant. People were arrested, tortured, and executed without a fair trial or any trial at all. Under Manuel Contreras, DINA was particularly vicious and served as the main ‘war’ on Marxism in Chile (50). The creation of DINA by Pinochet was political as he used it to eradicate and scare those who would oppose his regime. DINA sought support outside of Chile including to far right-wing politicians in Italy (52). DINA was created and succeeded in eradicating Communism within Chile and it achieved this through the economic support if received from various countries. Thus, the creation of DINA by Pinochet was also economic in nature as he utilized national funds to further DINA’s mission and sought financial support from outside nations. DINA effected gender as it sought out to destroy communists and communist sympathizers, these were generally political leaders, academics, and people of import within the Catholic Church. All three of these positions were traditionally held by men at this point in Chile. This left many widows for the nation and would have caused women to enter the workforce to support their families. DINA also threatened and terrified those who supported Marxism, including workers, which would have damaged the working class as they would have been terrified to continue their previous activities and affiliations. Pinochet’s orders to Sergio Arellano Stark to speed up military tribunals contributed to the rise of the authoritarian regime as they “expanded the climate of war” (48). Arellano, under Pinochet’s orders, traveled to various cities and would accuse members of grass roots political parties, workers, and academics of small misdemeanors and arrest them. These people would eventually be executed all for the sake of destroying Marxism. These actions incited fear within the people and prevented others from speaking out against Pinochet or associating themselves with any institutions that were accused of Marxism. The process of speeding of military tribunals was political in nature as it was comprised of the execution of political enemies and it incited fear into those who would potentially oppose Pinochet and his regime. The process of the speeding up of military tribunals also effected gender as the people who were branded as political enemies were generally men as women had very little influence in 1970’s Chilean society. The main role for women was as homemakers and mothers and thus they played little part in the institutions that became targets for the regime. However, as the men of this society were executed, the women had to take on a greater role within society do to necessity.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

Leave a Reply.

Author

I was born at the age of three in a long cabin I built myself on the source of the mighty Mississippi. ​​